186 BOKHARA THE NOBLE. 



spectacle in this picture of inconceivable misery. Packed 

 tightly together, occupying every inch of the bare mud 

 £oor, lay a reeking mass of worn-out, hope-forsaken 

 humanity. The moment that the low door was opened 

 and I stood hesitating on the threshold, a dozen 

 wretches pushed themselves up into a sitting posture 

 to stare vacantly at the intruder, and whenever any 

 one moved there was a grim rustling and clanking of 

 chains, for one and all were burdened with huge fetters 

 and manacles of iron. 



I am not of a particularly squeamish disposition — I 

 have seen too much of what has been described as the 

 " frank indecency of the East " to be that — but I admit 

 that as I picked my way among the piteous inmates of 

 this foul cell and peered into the gloom of the dungeon 

 beyond, conscious all the time of the presence of the 

 hateful personality of the jailer, who stood surveying 

 his victims with a cruel leer, I experienced a sensation 

 of extreme repugnance. The inner cell was a replica of 

 the outer, only more so, and in the centre was a sug- 

 gestive depression in the floor, to which a heavily 

 chained criminal drew my attention, with every sign of 

 satisfaction at my evident discomfort. Here was the 

 lower dungeon which was filled up twenty years ago 

 at the instigation of the E-ussian Tcharikoff, and it 

 was while gazing at this that I realised that bad as 

 is the present there had yet been a state of affairs 

 incomparably worse in the past. 



Let me quote the description of this den given by the 

 Russian Khanikoff, who resided in Bokhara for eight 

 months in the 'Forties : " The zindan or dungeon is to the 

 east of the ark, with two compartments : the zindan- 

 i-bala (the upper dungeon) and the zindan-i-poin (the 

 lower dungeon). The latter is a deep pit, at least three 

 fathoms in depth, into which culprits are let down by 



